Saturday, October 13, 2007

Kentucky Shocks No. 1 LSU: Implications!

UPDATE (10:40 p.m. ET): Perhaps you thought that two weeks ago's Day of Upsets was the wildest college football could get. Maybe you revised that after last week's upset of USC by 41-point underdog Stanford. It couldn't possibly get crazier, could it?

Yes, it can. It did: Not only did No. 1 LSU lose, but just minutes ago, the team presumed to take over at No. 1 -- Cal -- snatched defeat from the jaws of victory (or at least an OT-forcing tie with momentum and home-field advantage), with the most bone-headed and costly game-ending -- season-ending -- mistake of the year.

Cal's utterly shocking home loss to an unranked Oregon State surely spikes Cal's chances of making it to the coveted 1 or 2 spot in the first BCS poll that comes out on Sunday, let alone a spot in the BCS title game three months from now.

So let me revise the original post below:

The biggest beneficiary of tonight's pair of shocking results: Ohio State, which will surely take over as No. 1 in every poll, including the initial BCS ranking. (Though Ohio State may go through most of the rest of the regular season unscathed, who could possibly not see a season-ending loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor coming?)

But closely behind the Buckeyes: South Florida and Boston College, which have seen one more unbeaten competitor fall to the wayside.

However, let me throw out one more crazy scheduling detail: South Florida plays at Rutgers this Thursday night, in a spoiler game the Bulls could very well lose to last year's Cinderella. And BC plays at resurgent Virginia Tech the Thursday after that, in a game the Eagles could lose.

In just under two weeks, there will very well likely be no BCS conference team left undefeated, creating an insane scrum among multiple 1-loss teams, including those who saw their season crumble tonight (LSU), a week ago (USC), 10 days ago (South Carolina), two weeks ago (Oklahoma) and a host of others, any of whom could have a legit claim.

Friends, no more foreshadowing needs to be experienced: We are headed for a BCS Apocalpyse the likes of which have never been seen. Not one unbeaten with several 1-loss teams competing for the second spot. Not three unbeatens with one unfairly left out.

No: In all likelihood, three (and probably far more!) 1-loss teams, with no real (or certainly fair) way to distinguish between them, perhaps aside from comparing the teams they lost to (which would favor the SEC teams, but not the Pac-10 or Big 12 teams).

The ultimate BCS implosion. It's coming. The end is near.ORIGINAL POST:The wildest season in college football history just got wilder: Kentucky just knocked off No. 1 and presumptive BCS favorite LSU in 3 OTs. What a game: Best of the season so far.

For LSU, the path to the BCS title game just got much tougher: They now sit behind the unbeatens, and have to hope to pull off something similar to what Florida did a year ago.

For Kentucky, as legit a claim as anyone to "Best One-Loss Team" in the nation. Next week's game at home against Florida suddenly looms as large as this week's was against LSU. (Oh, and restore UK QB Andre Woodson as the Heisman Trophy favorite, and -- while you're at it -- as the top QB taken in the 2008 NFL Draft.)

The biggest beneficiaries: Cal and Ohio State, who project to be in the 1-2 BCS pole position on Sunday, with South Florida and B.C. close behind.

But, given the way things have played out at the top over the last few weeks, it's easy to see any or all of those four losing between now and the BCS title game.

Cal's frosh qb Kevin Riley went from hero to goat in a matter of seconds: converted on 4th and 17, connected on a 37 yd pass, gets a pass interference to set up 1st down on the 15 with 14 secs to play...with no timeouts and time for two legit shots to the end zone, what does he do? Decides to scramble and doesnt get out of bounds. FG team cant get on the field for the gimme field goal, game over

One should mention the refs missed an obvious illegal forward pass (OSU's qb was two yards past the line of scrimmage), which allowed OSU to kick a 52 yarder at halftime

But man, the Versus network has gotten some Pac-10 gems over the past two weeks...

I was at the UK-LSU game and had to say it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. UK somehow found a way to win despite being down 13 halfway through the third quarter. The State police collapsed the goal posts and nearly half the stadium poured onto the field. I was surprised that LSU ran it on fourth down since they had been killing us with screens all night. anyway it was awesome!!

I'm not prepared to live in a world where the top 3 teams in college football are Ohio State (a college I despise), Boston College (as a former BU student, it's hard-wired to loathe BC), and... South Florida?

There is no reason that KU will not be undefeated in two weeks. I know that they may not have played anyone, but they will not lose for several weeks. Next week is CU which is getting destroyed at KSU. TAMU is terrible this year. Nebraska looks next to pathetic. OSU is their first real opponent.

BC plays Virginia Tech and FSU. While they could lose to VT, they really shouldn't (poor game vs. ND nonwithstanding), and FSU shouldn't come close.

Kansas plays Colorado and Texas A&M. They could lose either, or even both, but winning both would have to be considered the most likely outcome.

Ohio State plays MSU and Penn State in the next two weeks. I'd think they're unlikely to lose either game.

Arizona State is off next week, then plays Cal. This is the only game in the next two weeks where an undefeated team is probably going to be the underdog -- and if the Wildcats win, they leap ahead of the other Wildcats as serious BCS title contenders.

And South Florida plays Rutgers on Thursday, and then UConn. While RU could beat USF, I don't think they will.

So while we might have no BCS unbeatens in two weeks, at least one (Ohio State) seems a near-lock, and only Arizona State will fall from the unbeaten ranks if the favorites win for the next two weeks (assuming Longshore is healthy by the Cal/ASU game).

Actually Dan, we could be headed to something even worse. A situation where a proven undefeated team like Kansas or Arizona St. or USF is left out because their name seems suspicious in the top 2 in favor of a team like a 1-loss OSU or Oklahoma or Cal team that hasn't earned the spot but has the name recognition to make the voters comfortable with them on the 2-line.

"Arizona State is off next week, then plays Cal. This is the only game in the next two weeks where an undefeated team is probably going to be the underdog -- and if the Wildcats win, they leap ahead of the other Wildcats as serious BCS title contenders."

We are the Sun Devils.

The Wildcats are the piss poor team down south. Please don't confuse the two.

-Colorado worries me just because its a road game. -A&M is completely one dimensional and KU has a good solid defense. -Nebraska is awful. -Okie state could be interesting with that offense, especially what they did to KU last year in Lawrence, but KUs offensive is much much better this year.-Iowa State is awful but a trap game.-If in Lawrence Missouri would be in trouble, at a nuetral site should be interesting. The KU secondary is much deeper this year and should be able to limit Missouri better than last year. The game could be meaningless for the north title if Missouri loses another game (Texas Tech this weekend) and KU wins out (cautiously optimistic)

If KU is going to do anything it has to be this year, as for the next 2 years they drop OSU, A&M, and Baylor and pick up Texas, OU, and TT. I believe they might be the only North school who gets stuck playing OU and Texas in the same year.

I can see Rutgers winning at home against USF for several reasons - 1) It is a night game in New Jersey in October (will probably be alot colder than USF is used to in day games in Florida, 2) Rutgers, as much as they get bad press they have a pretty talented team with a good defense, 3) USF is not a good offensive team, 4) USF's defense strength is its speed, its weakness is a north-south runner.(Ray Rice.)

Ohio State is going to have a tougher game at Penn State than people think. They have lost 5 of their last 7 trips to Happy Valley, PSU has won either 19/20 or 18/19 of their last home games, the game is at night so the crowd will be nuts, and plus PSU is a different team at home than they are on the road. They feed off the crowd and that should make a difference especially since Ohio State has pretty much played scrubs so far

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